This disclosure relates to human powered systems that can be operated by arms and or legs of an operator to provide powering and controlling mechanisms including exercise equipment, rehabilitation equipment, wheelchairs, vehicles and the like.
A variety of converter systems have been developed in the past for bicycles, tricycles and hand-cycles in various designs including recumbent style human powered vehicles, etc. While current systems employ a traditional pedal crank drive commonly found on bicycles, there are some systems that employ levers to be reciprocated fore and aft with ratchet systems to propel the vehicle in one direction of the lever movement. Others arm lever systems propel a vehicle forward in both fore and aft reciprocal movements through ratchet mechanisms and one-way clutch and gear systems. Other vehicles are propelled by both hand and foot operation.
Liebert in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,675 combines hand and foot operation in a versatile system that can be incorporated into different embodiments to allow an operator to propel the system on land, water and air. The system relies on reciprocating movements of both hand and foot that are connected together and helmet to be worn that is linked to a steering mechanism that activates by the movement of the operators head. The arm and leg levers are linked together and do not allow the operator to use one or the other separately without removing his arms or legs from the corresponding levers. Further, the head activated steering does not allow the operator to be able to look around without altering the path of the vehicle.
Bean in U.S. Pat. No. 6,572,129 combines hand and foot operation in a single embodiment that employs a conventional pedal assembly linked to the two arm lever assemblies by a spring loaded length of chain that wraps around a ratcheting freewheel sprocket axially supported by the pedal assembly which only adds power on the reverse stroke of hand levers, which has limited efficiency. Further, although the pedal assembly can be utilized separate of the arm levers to propel the vehicle the same cannot be said for the arm levers which activates the pedal assembly when be utilized to propel the vehicle.
Bayne in U.S. Pat. No. 7,584,976 is a single lever operated trike design that propels a vehicle forward with both fore and aft reciprocal movements of the arm lever. Further, the lever activates the steering through a cable system. The converter system utilizes a plurality of chains and hubs supporting gears. Although unique in design, it lacks in simplicity of design and versatility to be employed into other mechanisms and the ability to incorporate the use of an operator's legs.